Twenty-one Minutes and Forty-one Seconds
by Phantom Shyraz
Summary: (Poirot Cafe Super Short) Two detectives and one thief resting on their off-day.


**-It Comes Before the Fall-**

Disclaimer: The works of Detective Conan belongs to Gosho Aoyama-sensei.

A/N: Written for Poirot Cafe SuperShort Contest.

Theme: Mess

* * *

Twenty-One Minutes Forty-One Seconds

It all started with a **bang**.

Very literally.

Kaito sat cross-legged at the floor, the table that should have been in front of him now missing a large chunk from its centre. His chair, strewn on the floor when he reacted, laid quite a distance from the matching table. Flying about Kaito's vision were bits and pieces of paper mixed with fine particulates in the air.

He should have listened to Shinichi. Heck, should have listened to the annoying blond detective when he oh-so-nicely advised for Kaito not to even think about what he was had been plotting.

But let's rewind back a couple of hours, to see how this came about...

It started with a look at the calendar.

"AH!" Kaito shouted all of a sudden, startling his two friends sitting besides him at the Kuroba kitchen table.

"What the heck Kuroba?!" Hakuba was the first to react vocally.

Shinichi, having been friends with the sometime-thief for so long was quite used to Kaito's eccentricities. Though why Hakuba, even being in the same class as Kaito, still reacted adversely is quite a mystery even to the Heisei Holmes.

"Calm down Kaito. What's the matter." Shinichi forcibly pushed the scrambling magician back into the chair.

"'Kaa-san! It's her birthday!" Kaito pointed at the date. "I've forgotten!"

"So? Don't you usually buy her something with your allowance or money from those street performances?" Hakuba turned back to the Sudoku problem in front of him. "You said your mother likes the little trinkets you sent her."

"Yes, but this year, she'll be home!" Kaito stood back up and started pacing around the table.

"It wouldn't make much of a difference anyways." Shinichi ignored how the magician popped cutlery and flatware in and out of existence as he prowled the kitchen. "Take her out to dinner. That's always good. You've earned enough with your last performance at that children's show."

"But it's impersonal!" Kaito whined. He looked at Shinichi with puppy dog eyes, as though imploring him to provide a good idea.

"Personalise it with your show. Make her gift appear out of thin air or something." Ignoring Kaito's pleas, Shinichi followed Hakuba's example of continuing with his reading.

"You two! You're supposed to be my friends!" Kaito slammed his hands on the table, to which he winced at the hardness of the wooden surface.

"I'm an unfortunate classmate." Hakuba did not even bother to look up.

"I chased you. End of story." Shinichi leaned over to Hakuba, to ask about a particular passage that happened to be written in French.

"You're my friends. Stuck with me for the past three years. Now as friends, it is your duty to help me out!" Kaito looked over at the book. "By the way Shinichi, why are you reading French?"

"Bored. Thought I could use the extra stimulation." Shinichi shrugged.

"Look Kuroba, I'm sure your mother wouldn't mind you just taking her out to dinner with your hard earned money. Actually, it would probably thrill her to know that you are making a name for yourself." Hakuba penned down a few notes at the margin of Shinichi's book.

"Not good enough!" Kaito snatched the book, earning glares from the detectives, before writing down his own notation on the margin. "I need something special. Something unexpected."

"Tall order." Shinichi wrestled his book back, sighing as he re-read the passage with the notations. "You'd have to do something that you don't normally do, which barely exists seeing as you probably did things on a regular basis that no normal human beings would even _attempt_ to do."

"That's it!" Kaito snapped his finger. A puff of smoke appeared but nothing else burst into existence. "You're a genius Shinichi!"

Hakuba and Shinichi shared a confused, and somewhat concerned look. They weren't sure whether they should fear for their own health, the community's well-being, or Kaito's sanity.

"Why do I have a feeling nothing good will come from this." Sighing, Shinichi sat up straighter, as though to start a lecture with Kaito about stranger-danger or something along similar lines. "Kaito…"

"Wait a sec Shinichi. Hear me out." Kaito held up his hands to stop whatever the detected wanted to say. "'Kaa-san's coming home, and what's the last thing she'd expect?"

"You suddenly announcing you're getting married?" Shinichi suggested.

"You're giving up on being a magician and becoming a pilot instead?" Hakuba threw out the most preposterous idea he could think of short of meeting with the Queen of England.

"No you two!" Kaito wagged his finger in front of the detectives. "Me cooking!"

"Oh lord." Hakuba buried his face in his hands.

"Kaito. No. Just no. Remember that student apartment we had been sharing but no longer renting?" Shinichi attempts to dissuade the magician. It was two years ago, when they first entered university and Hakuba introduced Kaito to Shinichi. They had become roommates due to strange circumstances. They were all going to take turns cooking but Hakuba barely knew how to operate the stove and the single time Kaito cooked ended up in a house fire and had them kicked out of the apartment. They were lucky to find another one soon and Shinichi had forbidden Kaito from landing a single foot into the kitchen area.

"Kuroba. Be reasonable. You're just not good at cooking. You ruined water for crying out loud." Hakuba calmly pointed out.

"But I'm great at chemistry! All I needed was some practice with the stove…" Kaito walked over to the stove counter. Shinichi immediately reacted and snatched the hand back from the controls.

"Kaito. Let's face it. Kitchen stoves hates you." Shinichi pointed at the burn mark left on the counter just that morning when Kaito thought he could brew himself a cup of tea. "Look, I'll help you make something. You...figure out how else to surprise Chikage-san."

Shinichi took his jacket from the chair's back. Hakuba offered his help to carry the grocery, knowing dinner would be made into a grand affair. That and he intended to pick up at least a cake for the occasion.

Kaito waited until the detectives left before grabbing a cookbook, utensils, and the required ingredients for a cake. He took a look at the text then started the process.

Which brings us back to the present.

"How…?" Kaito looked back at the upturned bowl, the somewhat wrangled mixer, egg shells, and the scattering of flour.

The detectives, stood still by the kitchen doorway with their mouths agape. They nearly dropped the grocery and cake.

"Twenty-one minutes and forty-one seconds." Hakuba announced. "Kuroba, you dolt."

 **-END (?)-**

* * *

A/N: I buried and Easter Egg (?) in the fic, did you catch it? Anyways, if I receive enough request, I might consider writing a couple more fics in this universe or continue this.


End file.
